


Sentinels

by faolan228



Series: Walls Come Down [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-11-11
Updated: 2011-12-17
Packaged: 2017-10-25 22:38:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/275605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faolan228/pseuds/faolan228
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU Buffy Summers and Faith Lehane have kept the streets of Sunnydale safe for a few months now, and the Scooby gang is entering their Junior year of highschool. But when a blue eyed Watcher rolls into town along with her young, happy-go-lucky Slayer, the gang finds more mysteries unraveling, and Willow finds more than she ever expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Slayer contemplates her life choices, and an interlude with witchy, Watcher young’uns

It was on nights like these, Faith decided, that a Slayer felt truly alive.

Sure, the nights where one was up against a whole nest of 30 vamps were exhilarating, and a wild chase through the sewers got the blood pumping, but this.

This was a _hunt_.

It was primal, this act of tracking down the enemy, the prey, in the darkness. No worrying about random bystanders, no distractions, no rushing flurry to win. The knowledge that both huntress- _Slayer_ -and prey had an equal chance of taking one another out, this simple act of stealth and tracking, one that began with thousands of years ago with a single girl from the desert and would continue hundreds of years from now with a simple young thief.

A Slayer, prowling in the darkness.

Or, at least, Faith prowled. Buffy kinda just power walked through the place like she owned it.

Eh, whatever. Different stroked for different folks or some shit like that. Besides, Faith supposed the older Slayer had earned that right, taking out the Master and all.

Heh. The Master. Faith’s old Watcher had always creamed her little British britches over that Doctor Who show.

…well damn. Now she had gone and made herself sad again.

Kendra, the Slayer who was called after Buffy’s not-quite death, had been killed in New Mexico on her way to Sunnydale. As a result of that unprecedented chupacabra attack, Faith had been called. She and her Watcher immediately hauled ass to get to the Hellmouth.

And then her Watcher got eaten in Texas.

Jesus fuck, she hadn’t even known Bigfoots were real.

And why the fuck were they even on that state’s endangered species list?!

And the Council claims there’s no Hellmouth in the southern states.

That was over several months ago. There had been some posturing at first. The world wasn’t meant for two Slayers and a pissing contest was inevitable. But soon a mutual respect was formed and the two had even learned to share a Watcher. Sure, Faith still had some issues to work through, but Red hooked her up and now she had weekly therapy sessions with one of the Rosenbergs’ colleagues who thankfully, was all in on what really went on in SunnyD.

And all that led to now. The two Slayers power walking and prowling in the dark, looking for some sneaky-ass demon with lightning powers. The thing had been sapping energy from the local power plant, causing blackouts, and frying small children and puppies.

And Faith _liked_ puppies, dammit. And she was pretty sure Buffy did too.

Tough chicks like Faith were allowed to get all soft over puppies. It wasn’t like kittens. Getting caught cooing over those was grounds for mockery. But puppies grew into dogs, which were like _wolves_ that obeyed you and that was five-by-fi-

“FAITH LOOK OUT!”

When the lightning demon grabbed the dark haired Slayer by the throat and pumped her full of electricity, her first thought was, surprisingly, _‘Don’t tase me, bro!_ ’

Stupid Willow and her stupid viral videos.

And then her heart stopped beating.

 **A Brief Interlude  
13 years ago**

“Tamara, come here!”

The sandy haired little girl in question rushed to her mother, clasping her hand tightly. Still, wide blue eyes took in everything around her with the same curiosity found in all five year olds.

Well, okay. Four and a half.

But Tamara was a big girl now, either way. She knew because Mama said so. She’d said it a lot, since several days earlier, when Elizabeth had come to her daughter in the middle of the night and took them both away from Daddy’s house.

Daddy was mean. It was always his house, never their home.

But now Tamara could forget about Daddy’s house. Now they had a _castle_.

Every little girl’s dream. All the way across the ocean. Tamara knew, of course, because she saw it out of the window in the big plane. SWOOSH!

Tamara loved to look. To listen. To watch. Even now, as she watched her Mama talk to the man who picked them up from the airport and took them to this castle. From what she gathered, he was a friend of her Mama’s from when she was Tamara’s age.

What Tamara did not know was that not only Jack Tiler a childhood friend of Elizabeth’s, he was also a member of one of the only organizations in the world willing to take in a homeless, jobless witch with a young daughter.

The Watcher’s Council.

Not that Jack had double motives, oh no. He’d have taken Liz and her daughter in no questions asked, regardless. But, at least this way, Liz could get paid doing what she loved and her kid could get some training, too. Putting on his best smile, he offered his hand to the little girl as Liz watched on approvingly.

“Hello there, I’m Jack!” The little girl took his hand and smiled up at him, a little lopsided thing that made Jack think, ‘Most definitely Liz’s child.’

“You gotta funny accent!” the child exclaimed in delight.

“And you look just like your mum! Shall I call you mini-Liz, then?”

The little girl seemed to smile even brighter now, the grin now accompanied by an arched brow.

“’m T’ara!”


	2. More life choices, and Willow makes the reader crave raspberry flavoured confectionery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What I'd really like to point out here is that I really want the characters to act their ages. Despite saving the world on a nightly basis and all that fun stuff, most of our characters are currently within the 16-18 year old range.
> 
> Also, anyone who like crypto-zoology and all the weird things that come with it will probably love this series.

**8 years ago**

Ten year old Tara Tiler sat in front of the two grave stones, knees curled up under her chin and feeling for the first time completely alone. This was a new feeling, and the girl honestly had no idea what to do now. As a little girl, even with her father being the way he was and Donny being a butthead, Tara had always still had Mama. Someone to hold her and tell her she was precious and to teach her magic.

And then they had moved to England and Tara’s family had only grown. Jack had, eventually, become Tara’s new Daddy. The Watcher had _encouraged_ Tara’s magic, and had helped nurture an already observant young mind. She remembered curling up next to her step-father in the Council’s giant library, the two of the regaling each other with stories, Tara’s stories being whatever she had read earlier that day and Jack’s being extremely censored versions of various Watcher’s reports.

Well, only censored when Mama was in earshot. The woman was a hardcore pacifist, and had nearly gone catatonic when Jack suggested that her six year old take up fencing.

Well, no one was going to Tara’s tournaments now.

Her parents had been sent by the Council to investigate some goings on at a church Mawnan, Cornwall. A generational witch and a seasoned field-Watcher, it was meant to be routine: Go in, get a feel of the ley lines, interview a few locals, report back. If it had a natural explanation, leave it be. If something demonic really was going on, then the Council would intervene.

 _‘And we all know how well that went,_ ’ the ten year old thought bitterly. Tara didn’t need to know all the details. The funeral had been a closed casket affair, after all. _‘And we’re still not sure of that’s all of them buried down there.’_

Stop. Stop it.

 _‘…but how’d they know whose limbs were whose?’_

Stop it, Tamara. Stop it right now. She dug her nails into the palm of her hands and let her hair fall over her eyes. It was a defense mechanism she never fully outgrew. She stayed that way for a few more hours, even as it began to rain. She did move once, to wave a glowing blue hand over her head to make an invisible shield from the rain.

A shield that lasted only a few minutes, as her silent rage caused her concentration to waver and the shield to dissipate. A thoroughly soaked Tara was not a particularly happy one, though she was determined.

She could hear the car pulling up, the door slamming and the man opening his umbrella. Still, she did not move. For a moment, Tara thought the rain had stopped, until she realized that the man had merely placed his umbrella over her head.

“Let’s go. You’ll catch your death out here.”

“Train me,” I wanna make Mama and Daddy proud. “Train me to be a Watcher.”

“Fine then,” Quentin Traverse said with a huff, hauling the girl to her feet. “But I’ll tell you right now, you’ll be of no use to Council with pneumonia.”

 **Present day**

Two weeks. It had taken Faith two weeks to completely heal up, but in Buffy’s eyes that was two weeks too many. She should have been watching her sister Slayer’s back, and then Faith wouldn’t need to be healing at all. Faith and the others tried to convince her otherwise, but Buffy had a habit of internalizing pain when she shouldn’t.

Actually, now that she thought about it, they all did. Well, the family that harbors self-destructive behaviors together fights evil together.

 _‘My family._ ’ And what a family it was. There were the most obvious, her mother and her sister Dawn. Then there was Xander and Willow. In truth, the two were her siblings just as much as Dawn was. And Giles, father figure to the whole group. And Faith.

Faith was the hardest to categorize. They were friends, yes. Comrades, allies. Equals.

Buffy took a moment to reorganize her mental checklist and put Faith in her own category.

“It’s getting dark out. I should probably head out for patrol.”

Giles nodded his approval, but Faith’s eyes widened excitedly and she shifted to a sitting position from where she lay sprawled on the Watcher’s couch.

“Wait up, B! Lemme grab my boots and we’ll go.” She moved to get up, but Buffy’s firm hand pushed her back down.

“How about I go alone for now?” Faith opened her mouth to protest, but she carried on. “You can patrol later, but right now you should rest a little more.

Faith seemed placated by this. For the past several months, the two Slayers had been patrolling in shifts on weeknights, alternating on who would take first or second on a daily basis. They still patrolled together, or as a group with the Scoobies, during weekends or if there was something particularly terrifying about.

“Fine. But take Red with you. I think she could use the exercise.” Willow let out a cry of indignation, and Faith held up her hands defensively. “Hey, no disrespect! I just mean that this thing fucked me up bad. I’d feel better if B had someone watching her back and you’ve been looking for a chance to flex your mojo muscles, haven’t you?”

Willow glanced over shoulder at the blonde Slayer, who was currently going over her pre-Slaying checklist. “You really care about her, don’t you?”

“…this isn’t going to turn into one of those ‘we are all friends here’ moments, is this?”

Willow rolled her eyes. “Well, not _now_ it isn’t.”

 **~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

“-so it’s basically a seven foot tall lizard?”

“You’ve seen it before, Wills. Big lizard. Electric blue scales.” Buffy ceased her power walk for a moment to let Willow catch up to her.

“Well now, I wouldn’t say electric blue,” the redhead said. “Electric blue is more of a cyan. That lizard was a pale blue, not quite powder, not quite Robin’s egg. It looked like those raspberry flavored Airheads Dawnie loves. Yeah, that’s it! Fruit snack blue. Wait, are Airheads fruit snacks or candy? Is there even a proper distinction between the two? You should really check that out before letting your sister eat so ma-”

She was interrupted by some loud, extremely panicked shouting, and Buffy’s hand shot out to grab her shoulder.

“That came from the park. Something’s happening.”

There was a crash, and another voice shouting.

“Make that two things.”

A metallic sounding screech echoed through the streets, and Buffy’s mouth spread in an utterly predatory grin.

“Make that two things and a _lizard_.” And with that, she speed walked to the park, dragging a Willow-y witch behind her. She was going to teach Electabuzz a thing or two about frying her friends. She paused.

Ew. Pokémon reference.

Sadly, Buffy’s vengeful and Pocket Monster filled reverie was interrupted at the sight of Fruit Snack Lizard.

A very charred and fried looking Fruit Snack Lizard.

With what looked to be a sword jammed into its ribs.

Willow shook her by the elbow. “Buffy, look.”

Off to the side, two people stood staring at the lizard, the shorter one even going so far as to prod the dead demon with their foot before stooping down and pulling the sword out. As they approached closer, Willow noted that the taller one was a girl about their age, but the shorter girl couldn’t have been any older than Dawn.

Buffy noticed all these things too. That didn’t stop her from pointing her finger and letting out an indignant, “Kill stealers!”

The tall girl had the decency to look embarrassed, offering the Slayer and witch a sheepish and rather lopsided grin. The other, who Willow surmised to be about 11, did the exact opposite. Puffing up her non-existent chest like some sort of rooster and grinning wide enough to take up most of her face (a truly impressive feat, as most of her face was already taken up by big, brown eyes) and proclaimed,

“You can now head back to your homes safely, ladies. Art the Vampire Slayer has saved the day!”

 **“… **what**.”**

The tall girl immediately snapped into action, letting out a frustrated, deflating sound, grabbing the child by the back of the shirt, and ran.

Buffy was still staring at the spot where they had stood, several minutes later.

“What? What?!”

Even with knowledge that her best friend was most likely to repeat that word over and over again for the next 20 minutes in various tones and voices, Willow bit her lip and smiled to herself.

The taller girl had eyes the color of raspberry Airheads.


	3. Chapter Three (Faith is insane, But Willow is a loony.)

“Willow! Will you slow down!” The redhead had seemingly begun to channel Buffy, as Xander had to jog to keep up with her power walk. It was lunch the next day, and Willow was in full blown panic mode. Not only had she not seen Buffy all morning, she had also left her cellphone at home.

 _‘It’s okay,_ ’ she told herself that morning. _‘Just pretend you’re living in a different decade._ ’

It was now Willow’s firm opinion that previous decades sucked.

It was hard though, lack of cellphone and lack of Buffy during class meant that Willow had no idea what in the world was going on. That in of itself was a new feeling. Even now, she was trying to piece together what fragments of information she had.

 _‘Dead demon…gorgeous eyes…wait, no. Little kid claiming to be a Slayer…Very little kid, smaller than Buffy, even. Was Airhead her older sister, or something? Oh nice, Willow. Airhead? Really? Oh god, please don’t let Airhead be her mom, that’d be so weird…’_

“You look,” Xander paused. “So intense right now.” He had been watching his best friend think, observing how the thoughts flitted through her head and how her face changed. This went beyond simple Resolve Face. This was, Willow-has-no-idea-what-is-going-on-and-it’s-upsetting-her-to-the-point-of-mental-distress-and-she-will-headbutt-someone-if-she-doesn’t-figure-it-out-soon Face.

Xander took half a step back, just to be sure.

“Hey, I’ve seen that face before!”

Xander whirled around. “Faith?”

The dark haired Slayer was standing by her open locker, sling backpack in one hand, brown paper bag in the other. Though it had been months since Giles convinced the girl to start up school again, it was still surreal to see her on campus. Even weirder when they found out she was only a Sophomore.

“Yeah, she totally looks like those lions I saw on Animal Planet.” Xander chose not to ask. He knew the girl had been bedridden for several days, and that Giles’ TV only got basic. “The ones who kill all the cubs so their moms can go into heat and they can mate with them? Same face, I swear.”

“Faith, I hate to break it to you, but you’re insane.”

 _‘Muahahaha I am Willow and Pride Rock is mine!’_ “Oh, um hi Faith,” Willow jolted, having finally noticed the other girl. Wait. _‘Faith injured...Fruit Snack Lizard…two weeks…new Slayer._ ’

“!”

Xander and Faith stared at her blankly.

“!!!!”

“…how are you doing that?”

Frustrated, Willow stomped her feet and made a sound that could only be described as a keyboard smash. Grabbing the other two, she pulled them down across campus till they reached the library. Pushing the doors down, Willow could not hide her excitement. She had figured it out.

“Giles the Fruit Snack Lizard killed Faith but its electricity got her heart pumping again but she was dead for a little while and so that’s why there’s a new Slayer but she’s _tiny_ so I’m kinda worried!”

She stopped, gasping for breath, chest heaving and leaning heavily on the doorframe. Willow was babble-master and could go on for far longer, but the sheer volume she forced into the run-on sentence expelled her lungs faster.

Giles cleared his throat. “We are…quite aware of this, Willow. But thank you.”

The redhead blushed. There, sitting around the table and chatting amiably were Buffy, Giles, and… **Airhead**.

The even had tea.

Faith brushed past her and plopped down next to Buffy. “’m back. Brought my lunch. And Xander. And the lunatic.”

“You knew?!”

Faith shrugged. “We’ve been discussing it all morning.”

“Didn’t you get my message, Wills?” Buffy was waving her own phone around. “’Come meet us in the library at lunch, we have news’?”

“Oh.”

“Well come on and sit down then, you two,” Giles pulled up two more chairs for Xander and herself. “There are introductions that need to be made.”

Xander plopped down in his seat and Willow turned to Giles. “So you all already know about that eleven year old Slayer?”

“T-twelve.” _‘Jesus Christ, Tara. Did you just stutter?!_ ’

Willow’s head whipped around like a dog’s. “Huh?” _‘Ohmigod cute stutter!!!’_

“Artie. She’s twelve.”

“Oh.”

“Y-yeah.” The awkward-ness level in the library seemed to elevate a few notches as Willow and Tara stared at each other. The redhead’s eyes stared right at her, wide and unblinking, in a manner that bystanders thought to be creepy, but left Tara thinking, ‘ _Green! Green! Love green!_ ’

Faith and Buffy locked eyes and tried to contain guffaws. The fact that Willow was gayer than Liberace at the Playboy Mansion was a bit of an open secret. It was obvious, though everyone had seemed to unanimously decide to keep quiet about it unless Willow spoke up first.

Giles cleared his throat.

This seemed to snap Tara out of her trance. “Oh, um sorry. That was rude of me. I’m Tamara Tiler, but,” she took in a deep breath, and Willow’s eyes bulged even further as they momentarily strayed to the other girl’s chest. “You can call me Tara. I’m Artie’s Watcher.”


End file.
